Set up “Build-Your-Own Dinner” with these dinner bars ideas, and watch your kids happily eat their dang dinner for once in their lives.

These dinner bar ideas will get your kids eating- and you off the dinner hook. Baked potato bar, taco bar, pasta bar, and more!

I get sick of the dinnertime fight with my kids.

There, I said it; Some nights, I am O-VER IT.

I gotta find something to make for dinner when I’m struggling to summon the energy to cook.

People say this to me a lot: “Oh, you’re a chef! Your kids must be such good eaters!” To which I always reply, “Yeah, but… no, because they’re children.”

My kids, both of whom are lower elementary-aged, aren’t actually picky eaters. There are very few things they truly won’t eat, or have genuine aversions to.

What they are, though, are frustratingly independent little thinkers who love to choose dinnertime as the exact moment to push every boundary I have.

Ever seen this meme? This is my life at 6pm every night:

Seriously, just eat it, for the love of God. Credit: the hilarious @sometimeskidsaredicks

Maybe it’s my fault; maybe they know that dinner hour is the time of the day when my defenses are at their lowest.

But after being reasonably great kids all day, eating normal breakfasts and lunches and snacks, they tend to take a stand when it comes to eating any dinner that’s not head crushingly boring, like breaded chicken.

I am so sick of breaded chicken.

So, rather than fight with them every night about dinner (and rather than make breaded chicken every night for the next 18 years), I started doing this one little thing that actually got my kids to eat their dinner:

I took them to the bar.
Oh, I kid, I kid. I didn’t actually take them to a BAR.

via GIPHY

I take one of the dinner bar ideas from my list below, set up all the bowls and plates of food in the kitchen, hand my kids each a plate, and let ’em at it.

“Tell me more about these DIY Dinners!”

And, even more importantly, how’s this idea gonna get me out of figuring out what to cook tonight?

A Build-Your-Own Dinner Bar is akin to setting up a buffet in your kitchen and letting every family member decide what they’ll add to their own plate, within reason.

It goes hand-in-hand with one of my guiding mealtime principles, which I get from Ellyn Satter: “You choose what time the meal is and what’s being served. They choose what food they’ll eat and how much.”

It’s part of the Division of Responsibility, a game-changer as far as picky eaters are concerned.

Utilizing the Division of Responsibility gives kids the power to make decisions around food- but within a framework that you set up and control. This gives kids autonomy while letting them know they are still being guided by you, the parent.

And a DIY, Build-Your-Own Dinner Bar goes hand in hand with this philosophy: You decide what goes on the Dinner Bar. They decide how they’ll put their dinner together and, through that, are more motivated to actually eat what’s on their plate, since they put it together.

Plus, DIY Dinner Bars are fun!

And lucky you- I’ve saved this list of my favorite dinner bar ideas and I’m sharing them here with you today.